Welcome back to Science Fair, Bwog’s weekly roundup of science events happening around campus. As always, email science@bwog.com if you want your event featured.

Physics Colloquia: Dongzi Li – Mysteries of fast radio bursts

  • Monday, January 30, 12:30 to 1:30 pm.
  • Center for Theoretical Physics (Pupin Hall 8th Floor).
  • “Making use of exponential increases in computing power and memory per dollar, radio astronomers have been able to search larger areas of sky with ever higher bandwidth at high time and frequency resolution… In this talk, I will review the current understanding of the origin of [fast radio bursts], as well as the many remaining mysteries, including the seemingly diverse nature of the sources, the plasma and magnetic environments near the burst, and the 16-day periodicity I found with one source.” More information here.

Exploring the Eco-Evolutionary Causes and Consequences of Rarity

  • Monday, January 30, 3:00 to 4:00 pm.
  • Altschul 903.
  • As part of their search for a new ecology tenure-track professor, the Barnard Biology Department is hosting a series of seminars with the candidates. This seminar features Dr. Jennifer Boyd, and more are to come!

Emilie Courtin – The Health Effects of a Social Policy Expansion

  • Tuesday, January 31, 11:30 am to 12:30 pm.
  • Online event, register here.
  • “Antipoverty policies have the potential to improve health and promote healthy aging. Emilie Courtin will present the effects of the Paycheck Plus Health Study Randomized Controlled Trial on psychological distress. The intervention tested the effect of a 4-fold increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income Americans without dependent children relative to the current federal credit. This expansion reduced psychological distress for women and noncustodial parents—the groups that benefitted the most in terms of increased after-bonus earnings.” More information here.

Sarah E. Vaugh – Another Skin: Climate Adaptation and Accountability

  • Tuesday, January 31, 4:15 to 6:15 pm.
  • Online (register here) and in-person in Heyman Center, Second Floor Common Room.
  • “Life in the Anthropocene is structured by racial hierarchies, even as people recognize the obstacles racial thinking poses to surviving climate change. This tension begs the question: How do race and climate change interact with one another, and why does it matter? Sarah E. Vaughn addresses this question by analyzing the ways people talk about race, and in many cases—avoid the subject entirely—in order to make sense of what climate adaptation projects can offer them.” More information here.

Healthy Building: Carbon and Chemicals

  • Wednesday, February 1, 2:00 to 4:30 pm.
  • Milstein 104.
  • “Join [the Barnard Design Center] in this hands-on workshop with Cristina Handal and Alison Mears of Parsons Healthy Materials Lab to explore the connections between embodied carbon, chemicals, and design materials to incorporate this knowledge into your design work!” RSVP here.

Tissue Talks: Katrina Armstrong, CUIMC

  • Wednesday, February 1, 3:00 to 4:00 pm.
  • Online event, register here.
  • “Join us every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. ET for the wildly popular Tissue Talks, our weekly webinar series hosted by Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, and the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering. Don’t miss the opportunity each week to hear from global leaders in Tissue Engineering!” More information here.

Columbia Stem Cell Initiative Work in Progress Series

  • Thursday, February 2, 11:30 am to 12:30 pm.
  • Hammer Health Sciences Center, Room 401.
  • “An opportunity for Columbia’s community at large to learn about ongoing stem cell works happening in the labs affiliated with CSCI, and for CSCI trainee to receive feedback from the community. Each event will include two presentations by trainees of 20-minutes each, with time afterward for Q&A. Pizza and refreshments will be provided.” More information here.

One is the Loneliest Number: Multivalent and Multielectron Processes for Next-Generation Batteries

  • Thursday, February 2, 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
  • Havemeyer 209.
  • “Rechargeable Li-ion batteries revolutionized portable energy storage but the limitations imposed by intercalation chemistry, cost associated with precursors of active materials, and critical nature of crucial elements drive the need for new batteries. Our lab aims to develop energy dense chemistries that obviate the need for the critical and costly elements like Co and Ni in the cathode and Li as a working ion… We will take a fundamental look at multivalent ion diffusion in the solid-state: a cornerstone process for the function of multivalent batteries.” More information here.

Genes and the Mechanics of Cell Shape Change

  • Friday, February 3, 11:00 am to 12:00 pm.
  • Online event, register here.
  • “The early stages of embryonic development provide some of the most visually impressive transformation of shape and form in all of biology. These transformations ultimately depend gene activity in different regions of the embryo… My talk will review the relationship between gene activities and the physical forces that produce epithelial folds and other morphological changes in the early Drosophila embryo.” More information here.

Plasma Physics Colloquium with Sam Wurzel, ARPA-E, DOE

  • Friday, February 3, 3:00 to 4:00 pm.
  • Mudd Hall.
  • “Sam Wurzel, from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program at the DOE, will present a hybrid talk at the Plasma Physics Colloquium. More information here.

Illuminating RNA biology with metabolically incorporated ribonucleoside probes

  • Friday, February 3, 4:00 to 5:00 pm.
  • Havemeyer 209.
  • Princeton Professor Ralph Kleiner presents for the Columbia Chemistry Department’s Friday Synthesis Symposium. More information here.

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